TEXT: Genesis 34:1-7, 25-29; Matthew 14:22-31

Genesis 34:1-7,25-291 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the region.2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her by force.3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the girl, and spoke tenderly to her.4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this girl to be my wife."5 Now Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah; but his sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came.6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him,7 just as the sons of Jacob came in from the field. When they heard of it, the men were indignant and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.25 On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares, and killed all the males.26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away.27 And the other sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled.28 They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field.29 All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey. Matthew 14:22-3122 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear.27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."28 Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."29 He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?".

"WHY DO WE SKIP THIS ONE IN SUNDAY SCHOOL?"

TEXT: Genesis 34:1-7, 25-29; Matthew 14:22-31

Have you ever noticed that there are some things in scripture that no one ever seems to talk about, teach a Sunday School lesson from, or preach on. Well, I have since I was old enough to read Hardy Boy mysteries during worship service. There are just some texts that surprise us when someone insists that it is in the Bible. There are just some texts that defy you to preach from them. So today I have chosen to do what if it is not impossible, is at least implausible. I am going to preach on three of them in one shot.

Recently someone who worshipped with us spoke with me later in the week and commented that she had attended three services that Sunday and in each service the same texts were read. First she wanted to know if I knew the pastors of those churches and had we planned the services together. I told her "no" I didn't know the pastors and thus we had not had a joint worship planning meeting. In fact, we had not even had one for our own service that particular week. "Well," she said, "the Holy Spirit certainly was guiding each of you because it was just what I needed to hear and each of you had a completely different sermon but each spoke directly to a particular need that I have been facing. Thank you for letting the Spirit lead you to those texts."

I didn't want to puncture her confidence in my responsiveness to the leading of the Spirit, or that of the other pastors. However, her comments affirmed my confidence in the method which I follow to select texts. I, like the other two pastors from different denominations which she heard that Sunday, choose the texts from which I would preach that Sunday out of the four suggested texts for that particular day which come around every three years on that particular Sunday.

When it comes to deciding what I will be preaching on any given Sunday I take a bit of comfort in following what is known as the Common Lectionary. Perhaps you know that the Lectionary is a system followed by most Christian churches (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) which outlines in a three year cycle scripture selections for use in worship. Theoretically over the course of the three year cycle anyone worshipping in a church which follows the lectionary would be exposed to most of the Bible. Now out of my evangelical, spirit guided roots that seems to be a ready made way for binding the spirit, but let me tell you that Baptists of my heritage (and most likely yours) followed similar systems we just didn't call it that.
In the Sunday School which I attended we followed the Convention Uniform Series giving devoted attention to the deep spirituality of our lesson writers and the pertinence of what was being taught to our current situations. Little did we know that the text for that particular Sunday had been selected up to ten years earlier by an ecumenical body of professional Christian Educators and the Sunday School quarterlies written as much as three years prior to any given Sunday.
So I have decided that I stand in good company when I follow the lectionary. Yet, over the course of the last twelve years of doing so I have become acutely aware that even lectionaries skip over some of the more titillating juicy stuff in scripture.

Early on in this process of becoming a preacher/pastor, I decided that if I was going to preach on a given text, then I needed to study the verses before and after the text to get the context. In doing so, I re-discovered a lot of those obscure passages that as a youngster I had only seen surreptiously. Today's texts are an example of just that phenomenon. Who hear has ever heard about Dinah? No fair! She had a book written about her which would make a good "R" rated movie. What about what Rueben did with his mother-in-law (35:22)? How about Tamar(38:1ff)? Sounds like the new reality television show "So You Want to Marry My Daughter" or some such.

Ø What do they have in common?
Ø Why did they get included in scripture in the first place?
§ Perhaps to help explain the rise of the clan of Judah over that of his elder brothers
§ Perhaps to "explain" the long term animosity which existed between Israel and the residents of Canaan
§ Perhaps to point to the conflict which arises when one does not remember one's covenant with God.
§ Perhaps to remember how the Almighty remembers God's covenant with those with whom the covenant has been made.
Ø What are we supposed to learn from them?

· God doesn't just use the squeaky clean folk.
· The good guys and gals are not always so good.
· Behind all the supposed justifications for violence you will discover that violence is most often perpetuated by those whose egos have been wronged and that their seeking to right a wrong or obtain justice is often over-kill which simply continues a cycle of violence.

ü God does not make the storms disappear for the safety of the "chosen."
ü God does call us to places of remembrance and restoration.
ü God does not abandon. God does not desert us in the storms of our lives, be they self-made or at the hands of someone else.

[End with Peter on the stormy lake and Jesus' invitation that Peter join him (Matthew 14:22-31).]

Now that is a story from Sunday School. But so are the stories of Deborah, and Tamar, and Bildah. And so is the story of Jacob going back to Bethel, and the story of Joseph and the story of that descendant of Tamar whom we call Messiah, Jesus, himself.

Nope, you may try to airbrush the saints of our faith so that they appear just a bit less than God and quiet a bit more than either woman or man. But the truth is that they looked a whole lot more like you and me than we would like to believe. They had some messed up lives, made some awful choices, did some repulsive things, struck out with a violence that measures up to any contemporary terrorist activity in today's world, and yet…..

These are the people of scripture. God's people. Our ancestors in faith. So don't claim things or piety for them that our own scripture never does. Nor ever count your self so unworthy that God could never love or use you. None of us are worthy, but God hangs in there with us anyway. Don't doubt it. God beckons us to continue our journey towards holiness, fullness, completeness, shalom, no matter how story our lives.
Thanks be to God.